A presently used fiber optic connector arrangement uses a terminus in each connector that includes a ceramic ferrule, with the front tip of an optical fiber lying flush with the tip of the ferrule. The ferrules of mating connectors have their tips abutting, with the ferrules maintained concentric by a guide sleeve lying in one of the connectors. It is necessary to clean each terminus to remove wear debris that could reduce optical coupling. To facilitate removal, each terminus is held in a passage of the connector housing by a clip that can be released by a release tool. To facilitate mounting of the guide sleeve near the front of one of the connectors, it is desirable to enable the terminus to be installed and removed from the rear of the housing.
Present optical termini are built to work with contact retention mechanisms identical to those of electrical contacts. In electrical contacts, the insert which contains the electrical contacts has to be constructed of easily formed insulative materials such as injection molded plastic. Because of the relatively high thermal coefficient of expansion of common engineering plastics, because of the tolerances encountered in injection molding, and because the inserts align with only limited accuracy during mating, each contact-receiving passage has to provide substantial space around each contact, especially to receive the rear release clip. A rear release clip is permanently installed in each housing passage. As a result, if a clip becomes damaged, then that housing passage might become nonusable. The permanently installed clip has to allow passage of the spring and all other portions of the terminus lying forward of the clip, so the clip has to be expandable to a considerable diameter and therefore has to have a large diameter. Moreover, the clips must be dielectrically isolated from one another, requiring a considerable space between the clips.
The termini for standard plug optical connectors are usually very different from the termini for standard receptacle optical connectors. A fiber optic connector which enabled removal of the clip with the rest of the terminus so a damaged clip could be removed, which used common components on pin and socket termini, and which enabled the connector to be constructed with more closely spaced termini, would be of considerable value.